Apart from entertaining the audience with his films, R Madhavan is also an environmentalist at heart. Five years ago, he, along with his brother, Subayogan, embarked on an eco-friendly project after coming across a piece of exhausted and barren land in a village near Palani, Tamil Nadu. The plan was to rejuvenate the exhausted and barren soil using modern, organic and ancient indigenous methods of agriculture. The land was gradually restored to a healthy and productive state.
A lush green coconut plantation established thereon, a testament to the health of the soil and sustainable methods adopted. The aromatic coconuts seedling, a non-hybrid variety, planted thrived with an abundant bunch of coconuts with sweet water and distinctive aroma in a span of three-and-a-half years. Seedlings propagated were sold below market price and some local farmers were given seedlings to grow to facilitate the better economic return from the sale of seedlings and tender coconut.
This project is an important step towards transforming sterile land into an agriculturally rich, self-sufficient organic field. It not only promotes the need to adopt an organic way of farming but also helps in facilitating economic progress.
Talking about the initiative, Madhavan says, “ it has been one of the most satisfying and rewarding experiences of our lives. It was wonderful to see the land rejuvenated and yield it was meant to be in the first place. From preparing the land with the right mulch to putting the right fish in the well every bit of learning has been priceless and so worth it. We will be replicating this on other locations around India and the world.”
The actor, who is known to be environmentally aware and conscious, took to Twitter a couple of months back and shared the news of completing the project successfully. Soon, congratulatory messages began pouring in from all quarters.